Manchester United are desperately trying to find buyers for their outcasts to raise funds for what currently looks set to be a woefully inadequate summer rebuild.
We’re not quite sure if there’s more or less hope of members of the bomb squad joining clubs under former managers or assistants, but we’re going with it. Here are eight possible reunions the Red Devils chiefs will be begging for this summer.
Jadon Sancho – Besiktas
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has ‘asked about the conditions’ required to bring him to Turkey after Juventus predictably pulled out of a potential swap deal over excessive wages that continue to screw Sancho, United and pretty much every other player they’re currently trying to get off their books while offering similarly extortionate salaries to new signings having clearly failed to learn their redundancy-forcing lesson.
So yeah, the conditions are a £25m transfer fee and a £300,000-per-week wage, or a small loan fee and a great reduction in that wage when United get desperate towards the end of the window and are forced to subsidise his exit. Probably wait for that.
Tyrell Malacia – Feyenoord
As miserable Manchester United footballers go – and there are over 30 of them to choose from – we would suggest Malacia is among the most downcast.
“I can promise the United fans that I will leave everything on the pitch every time I pull on the red shirt,” he said when Erik ten Hag signed him in 2022. And we don’t doubt that he has, he’s just not good enough and him being injured or on loan for the majority of his three years as a Red Devil has probably been a blessing.
A spell at PSV Eindhoven last term didn’t pan out and here’s hoping Rene Hake – Ten Hag’s assistant at United; now assistant at Feyenoord – can persuade the club where Malacia made his name to take what would be an inexpensive punt on the full-back.
Alejandro Garnacho – Bayer Leverkusen
Like Amorim, Ten Hag had the occasional off-field issue with Garnacho, but unlike Amorim, the Dutchman maintained a supportive stance throughout their time together at Old Trafford, citing his age and trajectory to excuse the Argentinian’s ill-advised social media activity while doing everything possible to keep his feet on the ground.
Garnacho went from an unknown to a player linked with £70m transfers in their time together a the club, so Ten Hag was doing something right.
He wants an opportunity to continue forging that relationship now he’s pitched up at Bayer Leverkusen, who have both money to spend and a creativity dearth to make up for following Florian Wirtz’s move to Liverpool.
Marcus Rashford – Arsenal
He’s not being ousted by Manchester United because he’s crap, but because – rightly or wrongly – Ruben Amorim sees him as a poor influence on the dressing room.
In a squad so clearly all pulling in the right direction under Mikel Arteta, we can’t see him being an issue, and we’re not convinced by the logic of gifting Chelsea another £50m to sign a guy with the potential to be Rashford when the actual Rashford is available for £40m.
We get that Arsenal have been burned by the signing of Raheem Sterling last summer, but it was nothing a few minutes under the cold tap wouldn’t sort, and Rashford’s a very different case.
There was little evidence of there being much left of the Sterling who scored goals for fun at Manchester City when the Gunners took him on loan, while it was clear in six months at Aston Villa that Rashford remains a potentially world-class adjacent winger, as he was when Gunners assistant Albert Stuivenberg was working under Louis van Gaal at Old Trafford.
In the right environment he could do the business to drive a team like Arsenal to major silverware, and not in one or two seasons, as may be the case with Noni Madueke, but next season, when it’s do or die for Arteta.
READ MORE: Ranking Marcus Rashford’s transfer options: Barcelona? Arsenal? Aston Villa return?
Mason Greenwood – Fenerbahce
It was Solskjaer who handed Greenwood his United debut but Jose Mourinho called him up to train with the first team some two years after he was denied that same request as regulations ruled out the 15-year-old’s participation – he was well aware of the striker’s quality and it was claimed last month that the Portuguese boss had requested Fenerbahce bosses to look into his signing.
A report on Sunday claimed Al-Ahli have ‘submitted an offer of £60m’ for Greenwood, which will be music to Manchester United ears after club bosses displayed out-of-character cunning by inserting a 50 per cent sell-on clause in the deal which saw him move to Marseille for £23m last summer.
Whether Greenwood will be attracted by the ludicrous wages remains to be seen, but if he wants more of a balance between pay packet and football quality then a move to Turkey may be in the offing, and Fenerbahce’s big-money move for Jhon Duran shows their desire this summer to close what has been an increasing gap to Galatasaray.
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Antony – Bayer Leverkusen
Ten Hag wanted Antony at Old Trafford having worked with him at Ajax but actually warned the club against spending £85m on the winger, presumably because he worked with him at Ajax.
He wouldn’t need anywhere near that much to reunite with him in the Bundesliga, which may be another league well suited to the 25-year-old, who’s thrived in La Liga after impressing in the Eredivisie.
We don’t even really know if the Premier League was the problem, or – as has been the case for multiple players on and off this list – the problem is in fact just Manchester United.
Casemiro – Al Nassr
Cristiano Ronaldo isn’t technically the Al Nassr manager, but actual manager Jorge Jesus will be under no illusions as to who’s making the transfer decisions after CR7 signed his new £488,000-per-day contract while any rumour leads on Ronaldo ‘pushing’ or ‘urging’ so-and-so’s signing.
Casemiro was a dead-man walking for over a year at Old Trafford with United not just opening doors but baking pies to entice buyers for the Brazilian, but after an uptick in his displays at the end of the season led to an international recall he now wants to see out his contract in the hope of heading to the 2026 World Cup.
United would still welcome what would be a hefty transfer fee and to have his mammoth wages off the books; all they need is a call from Ronaldo and a promise from Carlo Ancelotti to see the back of him.
Luke Shaw – Ajax
We were of course tempted by the thought of Mourinho laying on some sort of mobility scooter/cart to lug Shaw through Istanbul Airport in a bid to further fat-shame the full-back after signing him for Fenerbahce, but we’re guessing the Englishman probably doesn’t fancy putting himself through that trauma no matter the tax-free riches he would receive in the Turkish Super Lig.
Van Gaal, who signed him from Southampton for United in 2014, also criticised Shaw’s fitness when he first arrived at the club, but the left-back later insisted Van Gaal “helped me a lot” and was a “great manager”.
The Dutchman is now an ‘advisor’ at Ajax, who opened their doors as a sanctuary for past-it England stars last year when Jordan Henderson joined after his morally reprehensible spell with Al-Ettifaq.